DC Comics is known for its line-wide reboots. DC will completely change the history of their universe; sometimes, like with the post-Crisis reboot, it’s wildly popular. Other times, it’s not, and today we’re going to talk about one of the times that it wasn’t. That’s right, it’s time to talk about the New 52. The 2011-2016 reboot started out like a house on fire, and like a house on fire, it eventually burned down to nothing. The problem with the New 52 was that the tail wagged the dog; instead of making a plan to make the whole thing work, DC editorial, led by Dan DiDio, decided to kick all the problems of canon down the road and focus on the changes. The New 52 is rightfully maligned for a lot of reasons.
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However, that doesn’t mean that we should throw the baby out with the bathwater. The New 52 had a lot of issues, but it also had some pretty great comics, too. These comics often get lost in the shuffle of everyone badmouthing the New 52, but that doesn’t change how great they were. These ten New 52 stories are all amazing, and a must-read for any DC fan who hasn’t experienced them.
10) “Darkseid War”
Justice League was the flagship title of the New 52, and its reception was pretty uneven. There are some good stories, and then there were some blah stories. However, the book at least went out with a bang. “Darkseid War” spun out of Forever Evil, as the Anti-Monitor and Darkseid go to war with the Justice League in the middle. “Darkseid War” isn’t a perfect story; it attempts to blend Fourth World elements with Crisis on Infinite Earths ideas, and doesn’t do either particularly well. However, if you just judge on its own merits, it’s a pretty cool read. The art by Jason Fabok is fantastic, Grail is a cool new villain that doesn’t get the credit she deserves, and the story does have a nice epic feel. Justice League had its issues, but this is the best story that it put out.
9) “Zero Year”
The Batman run by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo is widely considered the best of the New 52 (I don’t particularly agree, but more on that later). There are some excellent stories in their run, and one of them takes readers back to the beginning of Batman to tell the New 52 version of his origin. “Zero Year” finds Bruce Wayne back in Gotham City after years of training, as the Red Hood Gang attacks the city and a disaster allows a classic Batman villain to take over. “Zero Year” isn’t as great as “Year One” — few things are — but it’s still a fantastic story. Snyder is an expert Batman writer, and Capullo’s art is gorgeous. “Zero Year” did something that not a lot of New 52 titles did — actually dug into the history of its character and setting — and it was better for it.
8) “Court of Owls”
Snyder and Capullo’s Batman run started with a bang. “Court of Owls” was the first story arc of the New 52 Batman series, and it introduced an all-new aspect to the Batman mythos. Batman learns about the existence of a secret society pulling the strings of Gotham City, and goes after them. “Court of Owls” is an exciting tale that gives readers an amazing Batman story that really shows the strengths of Snyder and Capullo as creators. It’s an excellent story that set the comic industry on fire when it dropped in 2011, and it remains among the best Batman comics of all-time.
7) “The Trench”
The New 52 did its best to bring numerous characters back to prominence. Most of the time, it failed, but there was one major success, and that’s Aquaman. DC had begun bringing Aquaman back with Blackest Night and Brightest Night, and kept it up with the New 52. Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis, who had been blowing readers’ minds with Green Lantern and Blackest Night for years, gave readers “The Trench”, a story that set up Aquaman’s new status quo with his wife Mera. Aquaman and Mera find themselves up against the Trench, a race of monsters from the depths of the sea. This is awesome Aquaman action, showing that he’s so much more than just the guy who talks to fish. “The Trench” is one of the best Aquaman stories ever, and it showed that when the creators were right, the New 52 was able to shine.
6) “The Gathering”
Infinite Crisis planted the seeds for the DC Multiverse, but the publisher really didn’t do much with it until the New 52. Earth-2 and World’s Finest followed characters from the titular alternate Earth, giving readers the adventures of their favorite Golden Age heroes in the modern day. Earth-2 is a pretty uneven book, but while its original creative team of James Robinson and Nicola Scott was on the book, it was excellent. That started with the book’s first story arc “The Gathering”. “The Gathering” told the story of Steppenwolf’s invasion of Earth-2, the deaths of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, and the rise of the Wonders five years later, new superpowered protectors of the world, as a new threat rears its ugly head. “The Gathering” is fantastic; its first issue was basically perfect, and the rest of the story is on the same level. Earth-2 is a heartbreaker because of what happened later in the book’s run, but its first story arc will always be outstanding.
5) “Endgame”
Snyder and Capullo hit this list again with “Endgame”. Readers had already been treated to a Joker story from the team with “Death of the Family”, and this story was the continuation of their Joker saga. The Joker, who had flayed the skin off his face earlier in the New 52, returns with a new plan to destroy Batman. What makes this story work so well is that Snyder and Capullo were hinting at a new origin for Joker, one that was very, very interesting and completely different from Batman: The Killing Joke. Your mileage may vary on that, but it was an excellent idea that took a page from Morrison’s Batman and Robin. On top of that, there are some excellent action scenes in this book that fans will never forget. “Endgame” is the turning point of their Batman run, ending on a huge change that will hook you into reading the rest of the run.
4) Forever Evil
The New 52 wasn’t the best when it came to event comics, but there is one excellent event book from those five years. Forever Evil spun out of Justice League, as the Crime Syndicate of Earth-3 thrash the superhero community and enlist the villains of the world to conquer the planet. However, Lex Luthor isn’t having any of that and recruits a team of Justice League villains — Deathstroke, Black Manta, Black Adam, Captain Cold, Catwoman, Sinestro, and a Bizarro clone — to stop them. Writer Geoff Johns has always done a fantastic job writing villains, and this book is no exception. Forever Evil is underrated gem, showing off why DC has some of the best villains ever.
3) Geoff Johns’s Green Lantern
The New 52 didn’t reboot everything, as the most popular DC titles basically got to keep going as if nothing happened. This is the case of Green Lantern (Vol. 5) #1-20, which is the ending to Geoff Johns’s Green Lantern epic. Johns, working mostly with artist Doug Mahnke, brought Sinestro back into the Green Lantern Corps, introduced Simon Baz, and revealed more of the sins of the Guardians of the Universe. Johns is one of the best Green Lantern writers of all time, and these twenty issues tie up his time on the book in a nice bow, giving readers the kind of epic action that Johns had been giving them since Green Lantern: Rebirth.
2) Grant Morrison’s Action Comics
Grant Morrison’s Action Comics run is one of the best modern Superman stories. Morrison was allowed to give readers the beginning of the New 52 Superman’s career, and over the span of 19 issues, Action Comics #0-18, gave readers a great Superman epic. Morrison sets up an amazing Superman story from the beginning, and pays it all off by the end of their run. It also hearkened back to Superman’s Golden Age “man of the people” years, introduced the coolest multiversal Superman ever, and made the Kryptonian armor costume make sense. These 19 issues are all one continuous story, with Morrison giving readers some of the coolest Superman ideas ever, with beautiful art from Rags Morales, Andy Kubert, Gene Ha, and Talent Foreman. For my money, this is the best New 52 run by any creator, a perfect example of just how great Superman can be.
1) The Multiversity
The Multiversity is an underrated gem, and easily the best thing to come out of the New 52. Writer Grant Morrison had been promising readers The Multiversity since the end of Final Crisis, but readers wouldn’t get it until the New 52. The Multiversity is two bookend issues with seven one-shots taking readers to different the various Earths of the New 52 DC Universe. It’s an outstanding story about the power of comics, and has some of the best writing of Morrison’s career (The Multiversity: Pax Americana is one of the best single issues of all-time). On top of that, the art is outstanding, with a murderer’s row of the best talent out there — Ivan Reis, Chris Sprouse, Cameron Stewart, Frank Quitely, Karl Story, Ben Oliver, Jim Lee, and Doug Mahnke — giving readers amazing images. The Multiversity is brilliant, and that’s really all there is to it.
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